Lance also went to the NADAC trial this Saturday. I was glad we were finally indoors where Lance says he is capable of weaving again! He felt a little more subdued than normal but seemed to run ok for me.
Lance jumped 4in again and really enjoyed it. There were still a few head dips and a few early take off jumps but huge improvement over a few months ago. We even did Jumpers for the first time since starting a new jump training program and Lance did great on the straight lines! Only regular used the contact obstacles and Lance showed he has no idea what he's supposed to do in a trial. But he tried!
The run I am most proud of was the 2nd run, Chances. I thought that was the hardest distance challenge I've seen for the Elite dogs and was not optimistic. We didn't qualify but got more of it than I thought he would!
Vito had one of his best trials today! He was super enthusastic to go in the ring and started his toller screaming without any help from me. Go obnoxious Toller! We were often first to go which often met very little warm up, but Vito didn't need much to get him excited. Sometimes it can take a lot of effort on my part to get him from crate-sleepy mode to play mode but not today!
We even manged to go 4/4 today in Regular, Chances, Tunnelers, and Jumpers. My handling wasn't the greatest at times but Vito did great!
Summary: Lance tried for more UDX legs this past weekend. None achieved, only 1 real Q and another technical Q. Signals are a foreign concept to Lance and he lost his mojo on articles. Oh and stays suck.
Vito was entered in AKC Rally this past Sunday. One day only and exactly 1yr since his last attempt. My hopes were high that after the great results of our APDT rally attempt this summer and our since extensive work on ring entries, that Vito would be relaxed and happy. This trial was also held at our normal obedience club and even though open and utility were held on the agility side, Vito's rally ring was the exact same ring we practice in weekly.
Results were mixed. He warmed up nicely and even relaxed beautifully by all the other rally dogs and exhibitors hanging out at the entrance area. Waiting to go in the ring we played the food flick game suggested by Denise Fenzi (and I think invented by Kay Lawrence?). He loves that game and focused really nicely for me. But as soon as I got near the actual ring gates he changed. Vito wouldn't jump up on me when cued and began looking around the room. Going in the ring he remembered our burst through the gates game and did a great set up. But then I had to take off the leash and Vito again started checking out and took a few seconds to sit.
The first sign was unfortunately a moving down-walk around. A behavior that Vito is great at, one that also requires not only a stop of the fun heeling but concentration on the dog's part. I thought Vito burst off the start nicely with me as we had practiced a billion times in our ring entries but he froze on moving down, managing to sit for a few seconds before turning to me. I then went into crazy mom mode and practically ran around the rest of the course with him. Pumping him up and not caring if he sat for everything or if we even stopped at all the turn signs. It worked as by the end Vito was even prancing and bumping into me! Of course we NQed on several signs.
I am SO happy with how he finished that run. But I admit I'm really disappointed with the start. I had delusions that Vito could handle starting in rally again and now I don't think he is ready. I should have had our getting ready to go in the ring taped as I felt the 30sec before entering the ring was the worse.
My verdict on teaching both a running and a stopped dogwalk... happiness. Neither are anywhere close to being the fastest or best executed dogwalks, but we have understanding, and yellow! I was so worried I was going to screw up his running and worried I would have painful creepage for the stops.
Video shows "eh" results; I can live with that. I have goals to teach "the next dog" how to properly collect for turns after a running dogwalk, but I think I am finally going to be content with Vito's simple run or stop answer. I've just barely started sequencing before the dogwalk now so we still have a bit to go. He's also quite dependent on my motion at this point.
Change is hard for the Toller. That's why when the new office space was finally ready at work I wasn't looking forward to moving my stuff and the dogs. After 2.5yrs of coming to work with me he had just started to get used to things in the last few months. I could FINALLY leave Vito in my cube while I trained dogs and not have to ask my coworkers when I came back how he did or tell just by looking at him. Vito had even started sleeping under my desk the 2nd half of each day. Proof of awesomeness:
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